Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Chapter 12
The Passover Ritual Prescribed.[a] 1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 [b]This month will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year.(A) 3 Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every family must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a lamb, it along with its nearest neighbor will procure one, and apportion the lamb’s cost[c] in proportion to the number of persons, according to what each household consumes. 5 Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole community of Israel assembled, it will be slaughtered during the evening twilight. 7 They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or even boiled in water, but roasted, with its head and shanks and inner organs. 10 You must not keep any of it beyond the morning; whatever is left over in the morning must be burned up.
11 This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you will eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land, human being and beast alike, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the Lord!(B) 13 But for you the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thereby, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.(C)
14 This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord; you will celebrate it as a statute forever.
Psalm 149[a]
Praise God with Song and Sword
1 Hallelujah!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.(A)
2 Let Israel be glad in its maker,
the people of Zion rejoice in their king.
3 Let them praise his name in dance,
make music with tambourine and lyre.[b](B)
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people,
honors the poor with victory.
5 Let the faithful rejoice in their glory,
cry out for joy on their couches,[c]
6 With the praise of God in their mouths,
and a two-edged sword in their hands,(C)
7 To bring retribution on the nations,
punishment on the peoples,(D)
8 To bind their kings in shackles,
their nobles in chains of iron,
9 To execute the judgments decreed for them—
such is the glory[d] of all God’s faithful.
Hallelujah!
8 Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.(A) 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, [namely] “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”(B) 10 Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.(C)
Awareness of the End of Time.[a] 11 And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;(D) 12 the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light;(E) 13 let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,[b] not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy.(F) 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.(G)
15 (A)“If your brother[a] sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. 16 [b](B)If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 (C)If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.[c] If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. 18 [d](D)Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 [e](E)Again, [amen,] I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. 20 [f](F)For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.[g]
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.